Dragos Visan: Accelerating Research Translation – with an Assist from AI

Dragos Visan saw the bottleneck. 

Each year, Northwestern University’s Innovation and New Ventures Office (INVO), the university’s tech transfer headquarters, receives about 300 invention disclosures ranging from medical devices and therapeutics to novel energy storage systems and AI software. To evaluate each of those technologies and move the commercialization process forward requires a highly skilled team and substantial time.  

So, Visan did what he’s done since first arriving at INVO in 2012: He crafted a tech-fueled solution in collaboration with key stakeholders. 

Visan, INVO’s director of business intelligence, started with the low-hanging fruit: non-confidential summaries, the so-called “one-pagers,” which distill scientific content from invention disclosures, publications, patents, and other research materials into tidy summaries INVO can use to pitch technologies to companies, market the innovations online, and promote the solutions at industry events.  

Visan built models for generative AI to create one-pagers for all technologies in the INVO database. His AI-powered solution reduced a process typically consuming multiple days of focused work to less than an hour, effectively teeing up content for the INVO team to review, refine, and prepare for distribution.  

“The one-pager opens the door for an expert team that possesses the rare blend of deep scientific insight and sharp commercial acumen to continue all the complex business development and licensing work that follows,” Visan says. 

Throughout his career, Visan has led digital transformations to solve business needs and empower energetic teams.  

At INVO, Visan established a multi-year roadmap for the organization’s digital transformation. He overhauled INVO’s financial modeling and revamped its data management, analytics, and reporting systems to generate clarity around Northwestern technologies’ varied paths to market as well as revenue and royalty distribution.  

Thereafter, he developed a collaborative system enabling stakeholders across INVO, from invention management to compliance to financial operations, to see enterprise-wide data, which has heightened organizational efficiency and fueled outputs. Visan now leads an industrious, cross-functional team specializing in financial administration, revenue distribution, and data science to optimize INVO collaboration and performance. 

With the one-pagers’ project now in its final stage, Visan continues executing INVO’s fourth phase of digital transformation and is using AI to advance other business development initiatives, such as marketing plans, social media, and contract life cycle management. The overriding goal, he says, is to help ensure Northwestern innovations move into the public space where they can deliver public good and promote economic growth. 

“From helping patients battle debilitating neurological conditions to removing micropollutants from water, it’s amazing to reflect on how INVO has catalyzed innovation and research into marketable technologies and created value for communities and industry partners, all by bringing beneficial Northwestern research to market,” he says.